AP Spanish en la Ciudad

This past Thursday, my AP Spanish Literature and Culture class went to New York City to see the play La Casa de Bernarda Alba, written by Federico Garcia Lorca. We read the play prior to seeing it, so everyone understood the plot before the trip. My classmates enjoyed acting the scenes out with each other during Spanish class, so we were looking forward to watching actual professionals perform Lorca’s play.

            Sra. Ayers, our teacher, and Sra. Marquez, one of the Spanish teachers in the Modern Languages Department, drove our class in vans to Trenton so we could take the train into the city. The ride ended up being longer than expected due to various travel delays, but I still had a lot of fun chatting with my friends. After quite some time, we finally made it into New York City. The original plan was that we would walk to the theater from the train station, but we were so late that we all decided to take taxi cabs instead. By the time we arrived at the play, we had already missed a good chunk of the production, but we were definitely glad that we didn’t miss the whole thing!

Despite their delays, the class joyously made their way to NYC.

            Despite having read the play already, I found it really interesting that the director of the show chose to change various elements of the stage directions. Some of the color motifs Lorca utilized in the original script were altered by this particular director, which prompted some discussion among my classmates after the show. The play was entirely in Spanish, so it was a good test for me to see how well I could keep up with the speed of native Spanish speakers! The lighting, sound, and acting in the performance were great, so the long commute was definitely worth the wait.
            After the play, we had a couple of hours to eat lunch, so we all split up and explored different restaurants in the city. Although it was a cold and windy day, it was nice to walk through New York City for a little while and take in the sights and sounds. New York City is a little too overwhelming for me sometimes, but getting to enjoy it with my classmates for a day was a nice diversion from the typical school day.

Olivia and her classmates had the opportunity to wander a chilly New York City

            The day after we saw La Casa de Bernarda Alba, we had a test on the quotes, themes, and characters from the play. Seeing the play beforehand helped me understand the relationships among characters and their individual purposes within the plot of the play. My trip to New York with my Spanish class was definitely a unique, hands-on learning experience.

 

- Olivia R. '14